Tiny Tuesday : : Cobwebs

Ozzie and I got off to a slow start this morning, but we finally set out on a walk.. It was cool and very misty and we soon had worked out an agreement. He would patiently wait each time I stopped to take a picture if I patiently stopped to wait for him to sniff the spots he found irresistible. We couldn't agree at all on which spots were important to us so there was a lot of stopping.

There is some kind of spider that makes its rather unremarkable, hammock-like webs on low groaning bushes. They fill up with dust and bug carcasses and aren't usually very interesting, but this morning hanging onto a layer of glittering droplets, they were quite transformed.

There seems to be a whole flock of mockingbirds in the trees up by the road all going through their repertoires simultaneously. Clearly, each bird has developed its own message, incorporating everything from sweet birdsong to what I swear is the sound of the trucks beeping when they back up. I don't know if they are like parrots imitating sounds they like or, if each bird is somehow preprogrammed to make its remarkable  string of sounds. I have also tried, but can't tell if each bird makes the same string of sounds. I can't tell if they do one over and over, or if they keep creating new ones each time. It all fascinates me , and makes me smile, except for the part when they start their unceasing routine at 4am. They are remarkably loud.

We saw a new quail family on our hill today. The father stood up on a rock  while the mother hunted around on the ground for food.. He is remarkably vigilant, turning his head left and right, and occasionally turning his whole body. The reason for his vigilance became apparent when six tiny balls of fluff not much bigger than a ping-pong ball emerged from the rosemary. They even move around as if they were being blown by the wind. They seem quite late this year, but perhaps that is due to the raven v. hawk wars earlier in the season.